|
|
|
Ansys
K. Werner Seibert, Automotive Segment Manager
ANSYS, Inc.
• What technological trends do you think could concern your customers
in the car industry of 2018?
Reducing the environmental impact of automobiles will continue to be a
dominating challenge of the industry well into the next decade even as
the number of vehicles will continue to rise throughout the world. Alternative
propulsion systems will remain an area of key development focused on reducing
fuel consumption and reducing the emissions released into the atmosphere.
We can imagine that mild-hybrid vehicles, featuring a combination of a
small combustion engine with electric drive and the ability of energy
recovery, will make their way into the standard portfolio of most car
OEMs. On-board electronics and intelligent steering systems will also
grow disproportionately.
While low price vehicles with basic technology will become bestsellers
in emerging economies, the occident, suffering from serious and continuous
traffic congestion, will require all new concepts and feasible solutions
for efficient, but still individual traffic and similar for the transportation
of goods.
• How will automotive engineers' working lives be different? What
skills/specialisms will be important?
Prototyping and experimental testing will be further reduced, hence simulation
will be the mainstay of all product development. Integrated platforms
will provide all of the necessary tools to design, verify and optimize
components, systems and products. Complete systems and subsystems will
be modeled and simulated using a robust multiphysics approach, with greater
fidelity representation of the real world conditions.
Vertical applications, tailored for specific tasks, will streamline the
engineering process. For this, few experts in the disciplines of simulation
will be needed, and simulation will be performed by product engineers
and designers. Simulation specialists role will shift to one of methodology
development and overseeing of CAE technology use.
• How will your products and business sector develop?
ANSYS will further develop and provide both integrated systems for all
kinds of engineering and simulation, as well as customized tools for specific
tasks. Especially the latter category will be developed in close collaboration
with the automotive industry, ensuring a functionality which is well meeting
the customer’s needs.
• Where do you see the big opportunities to improve engineering
and engineers working lives in 2018?
Ideally engineers should no longer bother about interfaces, neither to
geometry nor between various simulation disciplines. Discretization –
finally – should come down to pressing the “meshing button”,
of which generations of engineers have been dreaming. Guided procedures,
based on best-practice-recommendations, will guide newcomers; providing
easy access and allowing to speed up soon and efficiently. All sorts of
standard applications will be cast into templates, with a minimum of user
interaction, assuring that standardized processes of a company are followed
and quality requirements are met. Nevertheless software systems shall
be open and flexible for further modification, being ready to gather enhancements
from expert users.
The rise in computing horsepower and a continuously improving price/performance
ratio will enable increasingly complex problems to be addressed in a more
timely fashion. This has historically been a key enabler for engineering
simulation, and will also be for the future.
A set of tools and system services which alleviate the engineer’s
need to worry about rudimentary “housekeeping” issues will
continue to evolve and expand. This will free up time to focus on innovation
and to finding the very best design against what might be a very complex
set of inter-related constraints. Years of engineering insight and knowledge
in the form of data and results will be immediately available for recall
and application. Even as generations of engineers retire and leave the
industry, all of their collective wisdom will able to be captured and
applied by the then current workforce. By the year 2018, the engineering
enterprise of a global automotive company will benefit greatly by all
that preceded it.
Next...
Arvin Meritor
Index
|
 |
January 2008
|
